European Athletics (EA) – News – Lavillenie and Saladuha named European Athletes of the Month for February

European Athletics is pleased to announce that Renaud Lavillenie of France and Olha Saladuha of the Ukraine have been voted by the fans and media as European Athletes of the Month for February.

Lavillenie made it two in a row and certainly deserved the award this month as he thrilled and astonished fans everywhere when setting a new pole vault world record of 6.16m at the European Athletics Indoor Permit Meeting in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk on 15 February.

It seems like the sky is the limit for the flying Frenchman who still has a busy year ahead of him with the main objective being the European Athletics Championships in Zurich from 12-17 August.

Second in the vote was Czech Republic’s Pavel Maslak, who won all five of his competitions this month and achieved a European indoor record over 500m with a stunning time of 1:00.36 at the Prague Indoor meeting on 25 February. He also set a 200m national indoor record and European-leading time with 20.52 and did the same in the 400m with 45.52.

Russia’s Ivan Ukhov was third and he also performed well in Prague equalling Patrick Sjöberg’s European high jump record with 2.42m. This truly was a phenomenal month for him as he won all four of the competitions in which he took part at 2.36m or higher.

On the women’s side, the award went to Saladuha, the 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships triple jump gold medallist, who equalled the world-leading mark of 14.65m at her Ukraine national championships in Sumy on 21 February, and also jumped 14.60m in France earlier in the month.

Close behind in second place was Russia’s Maria Kuchina, the 2011 European junior high jump champion, who won all three of her competitions this month, including at the Russian championships, and she also cleared a personal best and world-leading height of 2.01m to win in Stockholm on 6 February.

Completing the podium is Swedish middle-distance specialist Abeba Aregawi, the 2013 IAAF World Championships 1500m gold medallist from Moscow, who only made one appearance this winter but it was a sensational one, setting an outstanding European indoor record of 3:57.91 on home soil in Stockholm on 6 February.

The European Athlete of the Month initiative was launched in January 2007 and is designed to recognise outstanding performers at all levels of the sport in Europe.

No athlete who has previously served a two-year doping ban can be nominated for the European Athlete of the Month.

 European Athletics (EA) – News